Here is my dilemma and current set-up. The tank is an oceanic 135, I have it set up as a reef tank over 200# of live rock, 2-3" sand bed the sand bed is over four years old. My lighting consists of 4-72" vho run by 2 660 ice cap ballasts. I also have 2- 175wt metal halides with 2-xm 20,000 bulbs. I am running a 30gal long sump, the return pump is a mag 24. My skimmer is an aqua-v 180. I keep the heat at a constant 78-79* F I have no readings of nitrates with my current test kit. MY phosphate is not readable on my test kit as well. I have been running a phos reactor for over a month now.My problem is green hair algae, its killing me. I have scrubbed the rocks down twice, also pulled tons of this c**p off with my hands. Unfortunatly I have been working on building a new kitchen and laundry room and have not been keeping up with the removal, it has now taken over most of the tank. I have moved all corals down to the sand and pick the algae off them when I get a chance. I know you will need more info that I cannot think of right now.Any opinions or help would be appreciated.

What about borrowing a sea hare?They're magnificent algae munchers, and it sounds like your tank's big enough, even if you do return it the next week.The pet one in my LFS chows down algae from the coral tanks in minutes - they move him in, and the whole carpet is gone.

atnixon wrote: What kind of water do you use for top-off's and water changes?

Green hair algae naturally feeds on phosphates, do you have any macro algae in your sump?

Niko

Thanks for the replies, I have three types of macro algae in the refug (calupera, cheato, and another I cant remember the name) I am using R/O as top off. The last I checked the tds was 3. I am waiting on the new membrane for my r/o unit before I change the other filters. I have had a seahare in there for two months and he would not touch the stuff. he died last week. I noticed he would clean a little sot of the hair algae and then go back to the glass. I had been using 2- large seio powerheads for circulation till the corals started to cringe all the time from too much waterflow. I did have high nitrates for the first 4-5mnths but since have not had any readings at all. My water change schedule was 30% every 2 weeks. I changed salt around the time the nitrates disappered. It needs a waterchange bad, it has been over a month, but I have no r/o unit hooked up for the 55 gallon container in the garage.I am seriously debating turning the tank into a fowler tank.

You can have a 0ppm reading of both NitrAte as well as Phosphate and still have hair algae problems. The reason being is that the algae is consuming them. You probably still have a high concentration of excess nutrients. An overstocked tank could be causing the problem. Other things that come to mind would be overfeeding or the presence of a nutrient sink.

Manual removal as well as upping the frequency and volume of your water changes should help control the algae. However finding out and eliminating what is causing the excess nutrients will help solve the problem long term.

What is your tank stocked with as far as fish is concerned? How much and how often do you feed the tank? Also do you run any filters or media?

As far as coral I only have about maybe 15 plus a crocea clam.I definitly do not overfeed, as they usually get fed one small cube of mixed food a day if I dont forget. I usually try to remember seaweed at least 4 times a week.I obviously have a problem some where, but have not figured it out. It has been suggested it could be my sandbed that is causing the problem, but upon aquiring the tank the sand was thouroughly washed with tap water before adding to the tank. I bought the tank as complete setup and had been running for 3-4 yrs prior to my purchase. I do not use any other filtration as over 200# of live rock should be adequate.It has also been suggested it could be my VHO, I believe the bulbs are around a year old and need to be changed, but I personally do not see how less light could cause more algae.

I'm not sure if you mentioned this but do you feed your corals or the Clam? Also do you dose anything?

The tank isn't overstocked and your cleanup crew seems adequate. From my experience old bulbs do not cause excessive algae problems. The bulbs on my reef tank are about 1 year old also and I have not experienced any nuisance algae or negative effects on my coral.

Generally when I remember to, I give the coral a tablespoon of phytoplankton. The food I make has cyclopeeze in it, so I only dose the phyto every couple of days.I also used to add decapsulated brine eggs, but have not had any in over a month.I am wondering if I should try and take out the corals and put them in the refugium and do a blackout on the tank. I know I will kill off some of the coralline and some of the other corals that have attatched to permanent rocks. Then do a better job controling it as it comes up(because I know it will). Has anyone heard of trying this method with hair algae in salt tanks?

personally, i dont really agree with doing that...Controlling algae can be acheived with sticking to some basic principles..Always use RO water, wash frozen packed foods in RO water to remove as much of the phosphate as possible, dont over light the tank ( about 8 hours a day is about right ), dont over feed, keep good flow around the tank to stop detrius build up and keep food particles in the water column so they can be removed via filtration and skimming...Phosphate and nitrates are two of the major causes of bad algae in the tank..Remove them and the algae will start to die away as there will then be nothing to feed it..